After Emanuel shooting, Dylann Roof stopped at another AME church in Jedburg

posted by Sam Tyson, WCIV -
Feb 21, 2017

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Newly released documents in condemned church shooter Dylann Roof's federal trial show the avowed white supremacist stopped at another AME church on the night of the shooting.

When Roof left Emanuel on June 17, 2015, he took Interstate 26 to the Jedburg exit, and went to Branch AME Church, according to GPS data that was not presented in court during his federal trial.

But evidence shows Roof stopped at the church, turned off his GPS unit for several minutes, and prosecutors had planned to show that was a sign he was contemplating another attack.

Branch AME also holds a Bible study class on Wednesday night.

Roof said in his FBI interview after Shelby, North Carolina, police arrested him that he was too tired after the attack at Emanuel to continue shooting.

But evidence gathered by prosecutors show he moved on to Branch AME Church, which is on a road with no other commercial businesses that would have attracted Roof on his drive.

Further, prosecutors show Roof had driven past Branch AME on other occasions, including once in February when he was in the height of his attack plan.

It's unclear if there was still anyone at the church at that late hour on that June night.

Defense attorneys argued there was no evidence to suggest Roof was going to continue his attack at another church, though.

Other documents show Roof confessed to a coworker in 2014 that he was racist. The comment came as someone made a racist joke.

And in an FBI interview with one of Joey Meek's brothers, investigators learned that Roof regularly talked about Adolph Hitler and said he could only have 88 Facebook friends because that was his favorite number.

In an interview with Meek's former girlfriend Lindsey Fry, FBI agents learned Roof had met someone in Charleston and asked Meek to go with him to Charleston to rob that person.

Meek, who was on probation at the time, declined, she said.

Roof was convicted of all 33 counts he faced in federal court last month and sentenced to death.

Since then, his attorneys have filed for a new trial and asked that the charges relating to interstate commerce -- which carried the death sentence as a penalty -- be removed from the list of charges.

Prosecutors refuted the arguments in a filing on Tuesday. The judge presiding over the case has not issued an order on the motion.

Roof remains in the Al Cannon Detention Center while state prosecutors decide whether to move forward with his murder trial, where he also faces the death penalty.